Hamilton's victory saw him move to 331 points and stretch his lead to 67 over nemesis Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari who could only finish sixth, in a further blow to his title chances.

"I feel the media need to show a little more respect for Sebastian". "You simply can not imagine how hard it is to do what we do at our level".

Vettel's latest miscalculation came Sunday, trying to overtake Max Verstappen on the notoriously hard Spoon Curve in an attempt to climb from eighth on the grid after a tire misjudgment from Ferrari in qualifying. "You simply can not imagine how hard it is to do what we do at our level, for any athlete at..."

Toto Wolff has stressed that "freak incidents" can still derail Mercedes' and Lewis Hamilton's quest for the 2018 title, in spite of its substantial buffer in both championships.

"Honestly, I'll take it one step at a time", Lewis Hamilton had to say, avoiding complacency, but the Formula One title race looks to be run for another year.

Vettel has conceded that if the upcoming races unfold in the same manner as recent ones, Mercedes will win at a canter. "I think there's still some important things that we can understand and learn about the vehicle".

It might be said that, because Mercedes' Hamilton can actually race into mathematical certainty for his fifth crown in Austin next weekend, he already has "one hand on the trophy".

"As was the case previous year, in September and October Ferrari seems to have gone off the rails", commented Ross Brawn, Formula One's managing director for motorsport and a former Mercedes team boss as well as ex-Ferrari technical director.

"I know that the situation looks impossible", Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said on Sunday.

But while Mercedes has been a well-oiled machine this season, several costly errors from Ferrari and Vettel have allowed their rivals to build a near-unassailable lead.

"This is the greatest race of the year and this is the greatest crowd and I'm sorry I wasn't able to bring it home for you today, but thank you for your support", Hamilton said.

"At the last couple of races we made it a bit too easy for them but also credit to them as they executed well, which is the name of the game".

Vettel won the first two races in Australia and Bahrain and appeared to have the faster vehicle for much of the first half of the season.

"Obviously if races go like this it's a bit of a handover", the German continued.